VOLUNTEER COLUMN: Uniting as a team to beat the big C

Cancer United’s shop in Wick Street, Wick, is the first of what the organisations hopes will become a network of stores raising funds to provide meeting places for those with the disease.

Retail assistants are being recruited to work in the shop, which sells good quality used items of clothing, bric-à-brac, books, children’s toys, household items including electrical goods with the emphasis on large and small furniture, mirrors and pictures.

Volunteers are needed to work on Saturdays to help the sales team with the day-to-day running of the shop under the supervision and direction of the shop manager. Duties will include stock rotation and labelling, steaming garments and customer service, while working on the till.

For more information on this and other volunteer vacancies, contact Derek Moore, Arun Volunteer Centre co-ordinator, telephone 01903 731223, e-mail [email protected] or call in at the centre on the ground floor, Bradbury Centre, 1-5 St Martin’s Lane, Littlehampton, from 9am-4pm on Mondays and Thursdays and 9.30am-4.30pm,Wednesdays.

This week’s volunteering opportunities also include:

Serving as a volunteer mentor with the Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust and the charity PACT to provide support to offenders/ex-offenders through coaching, mentoring and befriending, to encourage full integration in society and to prevent social exclusion.

Link Romania needs shop assistants in Littlehampton, to work on the till and help with cleaning, sorting and general shop work.

Ford Prison needs more help to supervise and provide interesting/appropriate activities for visiting children within the play area of 
the social visits hall of the prison.

The play area is set out in a welcoming and attractive way and volunteers greet and talk with the children and their parents. Activities include playing with toys and use of craft materials, etc.

Visits are on Sunday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 2-4pm, and the volunteer needs to be there for half an hour either side. Volunteers can commit to one or more sessions, ideally once a fortnight.

Although there is disabled access to the play area, it is quite a small area with tables and large toys over most of the play area, possibly restricting interaction with children.